The Samsung WB350F compact camera is a slim shooter with a 21x zoom lens and Wi-Fi, but image noise is a serious drawback.

The Samsung WB350F ($259.99 list) is a slim compact camera with a long 21x zoom lens and one of the best set of Wi-Fi features out there. It's wrapped in a chic leatherette (your choice of white, black, blue, red, or brown) and has a responsive touch-screen rear LCD. Unfortunately, despite its impressive exterior, its 16-megapixel images are marred by excessive image noise, which seriously detracts from image quality even at moderate ISOs. We were happy with its 23mm wide-angle field of view, which captures more that's in front of the camera than competing models, but we can't recommend it over our Editors' Choice compact superzoom, the Canon PowerShot SX280 HS, a camera which also has Wi-Fi and does a better job shooting photos in dim light.

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Design and FeaturesWhen you consider its zoom range, the slim 2.6-by-4.5-by-1-inch (HWD) WB350F is surprisingly compact, albeit a bit heavy at 7.6 ounces. Its wrapped in a leatherette, with plastic top and bottom plates in a faux chrome finish. The pop-up flash is hinged, so you can tilt it back before taking a shot to add some softer, indirect illumination to your photo. It's not that far off in size from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS30 (2.3 by 4.3 by 1.1 inches, 6.1 ounces), another slim shooter with a more ambitious 30x lens.

The 21x lens packed into the WB350F is no slouch in terms of range. It's a 23-483mm f/2.8-5.9 (35mm equivalent) zoom, which is wider than other cameras in this class, but doesn't quite have the reach of the 25-750mm lens that's packed into the new Canon PowerShot SX700 HS. There's a standard zoom rocker on the top plate, along with the power button and mode dial; the flash release and Wi-Fi button are located just behind them on an angled bezel.

Rear controls include a record button for movies, and a four-way controller that adjusts the information shown on the rear display, the flash output, the macro focus mode, and the drive mode. Other rear buttons include Fn, which brings up a quick menu of settings that can be adjusted via the touch-screen display, and the standard menu and playback buttons.

The Fn overlay can be used to control shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, ISO, white balance, the metering pattern, the focus mode and active focus points, the image resolution, the drive mode, flash output, and the video resolution. You can change any of these via touch, or you can use the zoom rocker for quick adjustments. When shooting in program mode it's the fastest access you'll have to exposure compensation, as that's highlighted when you bring up the Fn display. If you're shooting in manual mode or shutter priority the menu defaults to shutter speed, and it does the same for aperture when shooting in aperture priority.

The rear display is 3 inches in size with a 460k-dot resolution. It's not as sharp as 614k-dot OLED display that Nikon includes on the Coolpix S9500, but it does feature touch input support. Samsung has a lot of experience with touch panels from its phones and Android devices like the Galaxy Camera. The WB350F's display is extremely responsive to the touch when adjusting settings, navigating through menus, and swiping through photos.

Wi-Fi is another Samsung strength. The WB350F doesn't have the Android operating system or always-on 4G connectivity that the Galaxy Camera offers, but it does have a full-featured set of Wi-Fi functions. You can transfer images directly to an iOS or Android device via a free app, control the camera remotely from that same device, or simply stream a Live View feed to your phone or tablet to use the WB350F as a video baby monitor. It can also transfer photos and movies directly to Evernote, Facebook, Picasa, YouTube, Dropbox, or to an email address. Finally, there's an Auto Backup mode to copy your memories to your PC, and Samsung Link to hook up to the company's cloud storage service or to beam images to nearby devices with support for DLNA.

Performance and ConclusionsThe WB350F takes what seems like an eternity to start and grab a shot—a full 3.4 seconds. Once you have it powered on, it gets a lot speedier. The time to focus and fire is only about 0.1 second, and it's capable of shooting short bursts (6 images) at 7.1 frames per second. The startup time is even slower than the time it takes to launch the camera app and fire a shot using the Android-powered Galaxy Camera, which can manage that task in 2.9 seconds. The Galaxy Camera shoots at 3.8 frames per second, and does so for 20 shots, but its shutter lag is a long 0.4-second.

I used Imatest to check the image quality that the WB350F delivers. Its lens is fairly sharp; it scored 1,931 lines per picture height on our standard sharpness test, better than our 1,800 line cutoff. There's some softness at the edges and corners, but that's typical for a compact camera. The Nikon Coolpix S9500 is noticeably sharper; it records 2,823 lines on the same test and offers a bit more resolution thanks to an 18-megapixel sensor.

Imatest also checks images for noise, which can sap detail from images and make them appear grainy. Noise generally becomes a problem at higher sensitivities to light, measured numerically as ISO. The WB350F does a rather poor job here; it only keeps noise under 1.5 percent through ISO 200—a setting that's good for use outdoors, but not quite up to the task of indoor shooting. Close examination of images on a calibrated NEC MultiSync PA271W display shows that quality starts to degrade noticeably at ISO 400, and by the time the WB350F gets to its top ISO 3200 setting photos are a grainy, mushy mess. The Canon SX280 HS does a better job with noise control; it produces images with little noise through ISO 1600, and does a good job with detail through ISO 800.

Video is recorded in MP4 format at 1080p30 or 720p30 quality. It's sharp and colorful, and the camera does a good job adjusting focus as the scene changes—transitions are smooth, albeit a little bit on the slow side. The audio quality is fine for a compact camera; voices are clear on the soundtrack and the sound of the lens zooming in and out is not audible. There's a micro USB port to connect to a PC or to charge the battery when plugged into a wall outlet via the included AC adapter; there's no external charger included. There's no micro HDMI port, which is fairly common with compact cameras. Photos and videos are recorded on tiny microSD/SDHC/SDXC cards.

The Samsung WB350F has its strengths: excellent Wi-Fi, a responsive touch screen, and a sharp lens among them. But it's held back by slow startup and downright poor image quality in low light. Other cameras in this class deliver uneven performance—the Panasonic ZS30 does better in dim light, but its lens isn't that sharp. The Nikon S9500 is on the pricey side and doesn't have nearly as many Wi-Fi features, but its lens is quite sharp and it does a good job in low light. Even the best camera we've seen in this category, our Editors' Choice Canon SX280 HS, suffered from an inaccurate battery gauge when recording video. Canon rectified that with a firmware update, and when you consider its price and image quality, the SX280 offers the best performance and value in this class. If you've got some more money to spend, and value connectivity at all, the Samsung Galaxy Camera is also worth a look—it runs Android and has a 3G modem for always-on cellular connectivity.

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About the Author

Lead camera analyst for the PCMag consumer electronics reviews team, Jim Fisher is a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he concentrated on documentary video production. Jim's interest in photography really took off when he borrowed his father's Hasselblad 500C and light meter in 2007. He honed his writing skills at retailer B&H... See Full Bio

Samsung WB350F

Samsung WB350F

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